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The Herb Garden, Newcastle

Fancy a Pizza? Try eating it in a quirky setting and we think you will enjoy it more.

People in London may think they have some great places to eat and some fabulous décor...but Newcastle has shown that The Herb Garden can give them a good run for their money. We love the décor and we love the horse on roller skates in the doorway. Why is it there? We don't know but its certainly a conversation starter. Pop along to the Sunday recovery session. Every Sunday from 11.30am. The Herb Garden offers six variations of baked eggs, just the thing you need after a night on the toon. A must visit restaurant!

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Built into one of the railway arches under the main east coast line just down from Newcastle Central Station the Herb Garden, Newcastle certainly dares to be different. The tables and seating are bar style benches and tables, so if you are not a party of 4 chances are you will double up with someone else. It is a quirky urban style of decor making the most of it’s unusual setting. The menu is mostly pizza but all very imaginative toppings, plenty of choice for all tastes.

It calls itself a pizza kitchen, but it also has the wildest interior.

You should go there just to see the “garden” – a wall of herbs growing in metal cylinders under a balloon sky of paper lanterns, like those people bought in the 1970s to go with Greek flokati rugs. There are scores of them glowing in the ceiling space of this railway arch under the East Coast line, close to Newcastle’s Central Station, and next to Couley’s tattoo studio.

The walls are steel, painted shaker blue, the concrete floors are polished, and a curiosity shop of bric-a-brac has been emptied into it, including antique mirrors and a horse on roller skates. It has reclaimed teak and smart beige vinyl banquettes, high tables with high stools, wine goblet chandeliers and ’70s disco music. Mrs Diner told me the sink in the ladies’ loo is a trough. The Herb Garden is quirky, idiosyncratic and different.

You can see little green herbs shooting out of their containers up the wall. These little barrels of light and water are a new system of hydroponics – pods of soil-free growth, and the main point of this venture. Richard Marks and Ryan Darrington have a company called Clean Growing Ltd. They’re hoping their pods can produce pest and dirt-free salads for the restaurant industry, and it looks like The Herb Garden is their Newcastle experiment.

In the window are two large pizza ovens, big versions of those domed things with chimneys you can buy for your garden. The pizzas on the menu have numbers, not names. Take a look at number 8: a red pizza with garlic, olives, capers, anchovies, basil and parsley.